In a recent developer AMA, Riot's narrative team took to Reddit to answer questions about the new VALORANT map, Fracture. The recent Patch 3.05 update brought several changes to the game, including this new H-shaped map.
VALORANT Episode 3 Act 2 update established some of the long-standing theories fans had about the two Earths. It has also revealed several unknown details about the storyline of VALORANT.
Fracture is the first map in the game that will have interactive objects all around the map. Players can access these objects in the buy phase at the Defender's Spawn and A Side Bridge. Every patch update will bring in new stories for players to unravel through this interactive feature.
So, if you're interested to learn more about the VALORANT universe then we have you covered. Here's all you need to know about the recent dev AMA hosted by Riot Games on Reddit.
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VALORANT: Riot Devs Reveal New Details About Fracture
Joe Lansford, Level Designer, Brian Yam, Lead Concept Artist, George Sokol, Lead Environment Artist, and David Nottingham, Creative Director of VALORANT were present at the recent dev AMA hosted by Riot on Reddit. They answered some of the questions posed by the community and revealed several unknown details about VALORANT's universe.
Here are some of the highlighted questions from the recent discussion.
Q. Are both sides of the map on Earth 1? If yes, how come the desert side seems to be from the other Earth? Was the separation between the two a portal or something similar?
David Nottingham: Both sides of the map are on Earth 1, but the difference in each side is a result of the nature of the experiment and the various elements being used to conduct such experiment.
Q. What was the inspiration behind the layout? What made you realize something like this was possible while keeping it balanced?
Joe Lansford: The inspiration came from a really simple question, "what if attackers could start on both sides of the map?" How will defenders hold? What does that mean for neutral territory?
In terms of possibility and balance, it took us a lot of playtesting to really understand what the layout was going to do to basic strategy. Turns out, defenders don't like just waiting to get collapsed on heh. We leaned into that a bit and built each map quadrant to support defender aggression to counteract the power of attackers pinching from both sides.
Q. What was the main idea behind fracture, the map definitely feels unique and the angles/positions feel like no other map. Do good agents or weapon preferences from other maps have anything to do with the design of new maps?
Joe Lansford: The main idea was "attackers pinching from both sides." All the angles, areas, paths, everything is built to just support that.
For agents and weapons, we want every map to present new puzzles for different agents and compositions. We don't build for any specific agent or comp really, but we do want different ones to shine on different maps.
Brian Yam: The main idea from an art standpoint was to convey a narrative of a secret facility run by Kingdom. We wanted to tell the story of an accident that occurred visually by creating a "rift" that divided the map into two very different biomes. B side is being overtaken by overgrown foliage and A side is being engulfed by the desert climate. Essentially, this visual direction gave an interesting narrative and also gives players a clear distinction on which side they are attacking or defending.
Q. Is there any agent who's familiar with this place? I feel like Killjoy would have worked there.
David Nottingham: This is the first time that all our current VALORANT Agents have visited this site. Due to its secrecy, even high-level folks within Kingdom were unaware of its presence and the work going on.
In most cases, there is an 'epoch' event at the site, that creates a huge disruption and release of Radianite. OR, VALORANT is called there in response to an attack by opposing agents.
Q. How was it to make this map? How did you get the idea to let the defence side start in the middle?
Joe Lansford: This one was tricky. We probably iterated on this map more than any others because it was so different from anything else we've built. Was a lot of work, but we're super excited to see what you all come up with on it!
As for positions, we knew we wanted attackers starting on both sides, so defenders in the middle just made sense.
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